Detroit’s ‘Bad Boys’ were legit

April 16, 2014

Not long ago, the Detroit Pistons held a night to commemorate the 1989 NBA championship won by the so-called "Bad Boys."

For a franchise that has basically turned into a train wreck over the past decade, it was a highlight in an otherwise drab season.

The Palace of Auburn Hills, the Pistons' home floor, was filled for the event. It was a sharp contrast to the rows and rows of empty seats seen there in recent seasons.

As late Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray once noted of a sparse crowd in Houston: "There's a lot of people disguised as empty seats here tonight."

I firmly believe the Bad Boys have long been greatly undervalued by sports observers around the country.

Maybe it was because they ended the stranglehold the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers had held on the league throughout most of the 1980s. Many people didn't like seeing media darlings Larry Bird and Magic Johnson handled by the roughhouse tactics of the Pistons.

But those Detroit teams were more than thugs in basketball shorts ... they could play the game.